All posts filed under: Admire

Royal Hawaiian Featherwork: NÄ Hulu Ali‘i at LACMA, thedreamstress.com

Royal Hawaiian Featherwork: NÄ Hulu Ali‘i at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

There were many, many highlights to my trip to Southern California for Costume College in July/August, but one of the best was going to LACMA to see Reigning Men, and discovering that there was a major exhibition on Hawaiian featherwork as well – and we’d come just in time for the last day! I enjoyed Reigning Men (though it definitely struggled with curatorial cohesion), but I loved NÄ Hulu Ali‘i. I’ve seen many pieces of Hawaiian featherwork in different museums, but never so many in a single exhibition. And Hawaiian featherwork is a phenomenal craft. The skill involved in making ‘ahu ‘ula (cloaks) and mahiole (helmets) is breathtaking. In Hawaiian culture, featherwork was a sign of mana (spiritual prestige) and status. Feather cloaks, helmets, and lei were worn only by chiefs. They were passed down from generation to generation, warriors would seize cloaks and helmets from defeated rivals, and feather items were given as gifts to convey favour. ‘Ahu ‘ula and mahiole are made by weaving feathers on to a netting of ‘olona (which is …

1913-1916 Sunshine & Roses corset thedreamstress.com

A 1913-1916 Sunshine & Roses corset

Published by The Dreamstress

Thanks to the total and abject failure of my 1910s non-travelling corset, and the super-comfortable but slightly too big-ness of my 1916 black and white corset, I decided I needed to make a new 1910s corset to go under my 1914-15 spiderweb evening gown for Costume College. This may not have been my brightest idea ever, as I was already pushing it to get the evening gown itself finished in time, but 1910s corsets are pretty easy, so… I used the same 1916 corset pattern from Salen’s corset book as I’d used for the black and white corset, only this time I adapted the pattern pieces slightly for an earlier ‘teens silhouette: reducing the waist to hip ratio, and cutting the front into a lower dip. I kept the higher scoop of the lower back edge of the corset as it is, although it’s an unusual feature on corsets before 1914, because it’s so comfortable, especially for sitting. Because the black and white corset was as big as it could be while still fitting me …

A 1914 Cobwebs evening gown, thedreamstress.com

My CoCo evening dress 2016: A ‘Cobweb’ evening gown of 1914-15

Published by The Dreamstress

While it was tempting to just wear old things for Costume College, and not stress about making new items, it was also tempting to try to make all the things. I compromised by only making one new gown: a 1914-15 evening gown for the Gala Ball. I couldn’t really not make this gown. I have an amazing 1910s metallic lace with a spiderweb and roses pattern* that I wore as my wedding veil, and it’s been sitting in my stash ever since, waiting for the perfect opportunity to be made into a dress. With the theme of the Gala being ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, using it for a cobweb fairy dress was practically mandatory! 1914-15 was also a shoe-in for a time period. The mid-1910s (1914-19) is pretty much my all-time favourite era, and, having done the Fortnight in 1916 project, a dress of that era seemed more than appropriate. Rather than making a 1916 gown, I decided that something summer-before-the-war, or from the first months of the war, when fancy going-away balls were still …